A Book by its Cover
by aDragonsTrueColors
Summary: London is in ruins but Millennium is defeated. As Hellsing and the Iscariot lick their wounds, a secret that the Iscariot has kept buried for over 100 years is about to resurface. And this time, there may be nothing that any one can do about it. It all started with an act of love, but it may end in madness... Madness that only Alucard could relish.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first attempt at a fanfic. Any and all reviews are more than welcome and I hope you all enjoy!**

Year: 1908

Devil's Tower, Wyoming

USA

Roderick heaved his leg up over the top of the ledge and began to pull himself up. Despite the chalk he brought with him for the climb, his hands were still sweaty and the grip on his knife that he had dug into the top to anchor himself was slipping. "_It's night time, I shouldn't be sweating this much!" _he thought in frustration. It was then that he realized that his rucksack was beginning to slip off. He only had a moment to choose which he could save, himself, or the bag. With a final desperate heave, he rolled over the top edge as the bag slipped off his shoulders. He spun himself around as quickly as he could and made a mad grab for the bag, but it had already fallen out of reach and vanished into oblivion as the wind picked up and swirled around the mountain top.

"No dammit!" he heaved…. "_My robes, the candles, and incense were in that bag…" _he then silently thought to himself. A slight pang came to his heart as he realized that the robes, which he spent his entire life in the church earning, were lost forever to darkness. "_No matter, I still have the book." _Roderick pulled his knife out of the ground before walking across the flat tower to its center. He knelt down and felt along a tight chord that he had tied around his waist and followed it down to a book that was tightly secured and hanging from it.

His fingers fumbled around in the dark as he untied the book and brought it up to his chest in an almost loving embrace. It was quite large and should have been very heavy, but it was nearly weightless. However, whatever kind of strange metal that it was almost entirely made of was ice cold. He knew exactly which page he needed so he flipped the book open and laid it down on the ground. He would have to wait for a break in the clouds so that the moon could shine on him. But it was pitch black out and the wind was becoming more and more intense as, what he assumed were storm clouds, rolled over head. It didn't look like the moon was going to be seen at all tonight and Roderick became desperate.

He had spent the last fifteen years studying the book with the other Iscariot scientists. It took him his entire career just to be given access to the book. The Iscariots had made much progress in deciphering the books strange writings. It was rumored that members of the science team had made a deal with the Devil himself in order to comprehend the vastly complex language, but there was never any proof….or investigation. It was believed that this book was too important to be left untouched and that it may have answers concerning God himself. But Roderick wasn't sure. He also didn't care. There was only one passage in the book that he was concerned with….Resurrection. The entire section was clearly labeled as far as he could tell and was fairly easy for him to memorize. He knew that there was a ritual that was to be performed atop a place of high spiritual energy during a full moon. And tonight was a full moon… he just couldn't see it.

Forgoing propriety, he pulled out the knife he had used to climb the tower and quickly slashed his wrist. Then, before he lost all feeling in his other hand he took the blade in it and quickly slashed his other wrist. He couldn't see it, but he could feel the warm liquid flow like water down his arms before it fell onto the rock. "Emily, my love, my life, my light…. The church forbade us, the world would have shunned us, and even God sought to take you away from me. But tonight, I spit on all of them and take matters into my own hands! We will not be denied our love!" he cried at the top of his lungs. The blood was flowing out of him very quickly and he was starting to become light headed so he was going to have to be quick. He recalled the first word in the incantation for the ritual and in a desperate cry he shouted it out into the darkness, but he couldn't hear his own voice. Instead, he could hear a rush of whispering and a loud screeching as if metal was being drug across metal. And after the last syllable left his lips, everything fell silent.

The wind had stopped entirely now and he just knelt in darkness, bleeding. He was about to utter the next word but a dim glow caught his attention. The book that lay before him in darkness started to glow a crimson red, revealing that its pages were now blank. A red light started to envelope Roderick and the tower and he looked up to see the moon glowing through the clouds. It was very distorted, but it looked almost as if the very moon itself was bleeding. He looked back down to the pages and felt his stomach turn at what he saw. As he looked at the pages, it was like looking into a lake of swirling blood and flesh. The words to the incantation were no longer visible, but it didn't matter; he had the entire thing memorized. Mustering his courage he looked back up to the sky and uttered the next word in the incantation. But again he couldn't hear his own voice, all he heard was a shrill scream as if a young girl were being torn apart. The terrible whispering continued now even after he finished the word this time and now he was truly afraid.

"_My God, what am I doing?" _he silently thought to himself. He could feel something now. Something terrible. It was as if an immense weight were bearing down on his soul. But he had come too far now to turn back. There were four words left to the incantation and he tried his best to shout them as loud as he could. But not once did his own voice ever ring out. The sounds of shrieking and whispering were overlapped with more terrible noise with each word as the book glowed brighter and brighter, the pages swirling violently now as if blood and flesh were about to burst forth from them on to the ground around him. And when the 6th word was finally uttered, everything fell silent again and all the light went out. Roderick sat in silence, the darkness turning cold around him. He wasn't sure if he was cold from blood-loss-induced shock, or if the temperature had dropped. Either way, it felt like dying. And then, like a knife through his very being, piercing his soul, he heard her voice from the darkness. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard, but at the same time, it felt like it was killing him.

"Now what am I doing here?..."


	2. Chapter 2

Los Angeles- Present Day

"Toy!"

"Yes, mistress." Roderick winced as he answered.

"Come look at the television, Toy! The reporter worms have been mewing on and on about some men in Brazil and a fight that broke out with your Nazis in England!" he could tell that the mistress was clearly excited, but even still her voice drained more of his life from him. Which, as he thought about it, didn't make sense. He should be dead by now. But he was her toy. Her favorite toy as he continued to further think into it... But this made him happy. He loved her and would do anything for her though, he wasn't sure why. Everything was so cloudy in his mind. He knew he was very old by human standards, but he couldn't remember his name, or how he ended up with the mistress.

"Look at them, Toy, it's disgusting. These beings keep referring to this, "Devil", as the supreme evil! I've read through your texts, and you idiots assume that the first demon to take an interest in your world is the prime evil."

"Ye-yes, mistress." Roderick squeaked out. He had moved into the large den where the mistress was sprawled out on a very large couch. The house they were in used to belong to a top Hollywood executive, but both him and his, as Roderick assumed, girlfriend, were nothing more now than boneless skin sacs that had been nailed to the back wall of the den with wood splinters from an expensive dining table that used to be in the dining room. Their spread eagled corpses should have been rotting by now, but for some reason they were still pristine, just like the day they died. Both he and the mistress had been in the house for several weeks. But any time any one came looking for the couple, they never made it past the front gate before they left. It was almost as if they forgot the reason they had come as well as the people they were looking for. A sadness fell over him as he realized that he didn't even know their names. As silently as he could and without thinking too much, he started to pray for the deceased couple.

"Toy?" her voice was cold as ice and Roderick froze in terror. She turned her head to bring her gaze onto him and as her eyes fell upon him he felt his life slipping away. Every fiber of his being was shrieking out in terror as his soul felt like it was being filled endlessly with burning hot needles. The mistress quirked a sly smile and bounded up and over the back of the couch. She was almost formless. Her figure was mostly a blur of darkness as she wisped over to the corpses nailed to the wall. Roderick could have sworn that he heard her exhale as what little form she had, evaporated into a dark mist before slamming into the male's body. As the dark mist entered it, its form filled out and it opened its eyes as if it was alive again. It lurched forward, freeing itself from the wall before shaking off the wooden splinters. He looked up at Roderick with dark red eyes and smiled before approaching the still frozen priest.

"Do you like this form, Toy?" he asked in what Roderick assumed was the executives old voice.

"Ye…ye-yes mistress." He said almost pleadingly. The mistress embraced Roderick using the executive's body. He…..she smelled Roderick up and down before nuzzling into his neck. She then slithered the executive's tongue deep into Roderick's ear before biting and pulling on his ear lobe.

"Toy?" she said as she bit down and pulled harder, making Roderick wince in pain.

"Yes my mistress?" he said as clearly as he could without shouting.

"What do we know of this….Alucard?" she asked as her teeth came to a close as she pulled away while still holding Roderick. He could see her eyes as plain as day underneath the fleshy Hollywood executive exterior that tried to hide them. She bobbed her head back and forth like a seductive snake before smiling and pulling Roderick in close. She reached into Roderick's pants. If he had had any color left in his face, it would have drained away, but he was already deathly pale.

"He is the lord of vampires, my m-m...mistress. H-he is the Devil's hound, a blight on this world that my people have tried for centuries to destroy." Roderick struggled with his words as the mistress continued on.

"Do you not like this form, Toy?" The executive pulled away and had profound look of pouting on his…her..face. An image that both confused, and frightened Roderick.

"He had been captured and imprisoned by the Hellsing organization, my mistress." Roderick was so confused now. He had trouble remembering now who his people were that were after Alucard. It was so clear a second ago, but now he was clouded again. And now he couldn't remember who the mistress was even asking about.

Roderick heard another loud exhale and the male executive fell as a gelatinous mound of flesh before his feet. A dark mist crawled across the floor towards the other corpse on the wall before entering it and filling it just as before. The woman that used to be the executive's girlfriend was quite beautiful before….the mistress. But now she was so much more. The woman that shrugged her way off the wall was positively radiant and it made Roderick's heart seem to skip.

"How about this form, Toy?" she asked in a sultry voice. Her skin was pale as moonlight and her hair was a fiery red. Her figure was a perfect hourglass and made her almost seem inhuman as she wore a dark blue silken dress gown.

"_That wasn't the woman on the wall before..." _Roderick thought to himself. "_Wait, who was the woman on the wall? I can't remember any more!" _

"Poor Toy... Do you miss your Emily?" She asked as she seductively walked up to him.

Roderick's eyes flared in desperate frustration. "_Emily? I know that name…. Why? Why do I know that name!?" _But his thoughts were interrupted and vanished completely as the woman wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. He had felt a brief moment of will, but it was gone now and he was her's. She backed away from him as he stood, still frozen. She gazed into his eyes with a powerful evil as she let the gown slip over her shoulders and fall like water onto the floor. Roderick's eyes widened even more as he stood helplessly.

"Come, Toy. Your master is hungry. And then I want you to tell me more about this… Alucard" she said while beckoning Roderick with a seductive finger. He wanted to resist. A part of him knew he wanted to resist. He did want to resist… didn't he?


	3. Chapter 3

Alucard sat quietly in his dark room, sipping on a cup of warmed blood. The events of the past few months were passing through his mind and he found himself strangely pensive. As he continued to reminisce, he had been thoroughly entertained with Hellsing's battle with the Nazi remnants and their occult-bread vampires. Though, the Valentine brothers were quite disappointing. And so was the fight with the "Dandy Man". Matter of fact, those Brazilian policia tasted pathetic. And after all the damage that Millennium caused, the very blood he tried to absorb from the ruins of London turned out to be tainted. Then, trying to undo the artificial vampirism that had been done to Walter was exhausting. But, after some impressive work, he was now a full-fledged vampire who owed his existence to him just as Seras did. Although, he does make a much better vampire than she does, even if he didn't truly earn his immortality… But he would have missed Walter if he simply let him die. And still, after all the excitement, he was still tense. And then it hit him, "God dammit… I actually miss the Frenchman."

Sir Integra was still in London sitting in committee after committee with the Queen and the Iscariots trying to put things back in order, so this left Alucard alone at the Hellsing compound. To make things even better, she didn't even know that either him or Walter were alive. Seras knew of course because she could feel her master's presence. But she was commanded not to tell, and she had to obey. Alucard shuddered as he shook off the malaise he had been slipping into and decided that he was going to go for a walk to clear his mind. The grounds were nearly empty as most of the soldiers died in London. As he strolled across the lawn, he noticed that the whole world now seemed like it was just….standing still.

"Hmmm…. I liked this place better when it was being overran." He mused to himself. All the action over the past couple months had made him feel alive again. And he craved the challenge of a good fight. He could feel his memories creeping up on him again as flashes of Turkish prisons started to make their way into his thoughts. But they were thankfully interrupted by a piercing shriek from above. Alucard looked up to see the blinding sun beaming down on him. Its light burned his face, but he had become strong enough to weather it over a century ago. Again he heard another shriek, only it was louder this time. He continued to look into the sun until…

"There you are!" he said now grinning widely. His red duster flared around him as he drew both of his oversized hand cannons and brought them to bare. His Jackal may have been blown up by Millennium, but he had revived his deadly pistol by pouring his own blood into the debris, and now it was even deadlier than ever. The creature's form came into view as a shadow against the sun. It had large wings and a massive body, but that made it an easier target. Alucard fired both of his pistols repeatedly into the creature's wings in an attempt to sever them, but it was falling upon him faster than he had anticipated. It crashed down into him with a terrible force, sending a spray of dust into the air. The creature rolled and sprang to its fee. It had a gaping maw filled with jaggedly sharp teeth and its eyes were pitch black. It had a powerfully muscular body and oversized claws. The creature dug the talons on its feet into the ground and braced itself as it shrieked. The shrieking quickly rose to such a volume that every window on the Hellsing manor, that was over a hundred yards away now, shattered violently. The creature continued to shriek, causing the dust to blow away, revealing an empty crater where it had landed.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you." Alucard said mockingly as he was suddenly standing behind the creature. It reeled around only to be met with a hail of gunfire from Alucard. In seconds, the creature's wings were torn completely off. It reared back and howled in pain before charging Alucard in a rage. It raised up one of its ferocious claws before bringing it down with a devastating force on him as he stood defiantly in its path. The creature's claws ripped through Alucard's flesh with ease and he was sent flying backwards across the grass on the grounds as his blood sprayed into the air. The creature didn't hesitate and fell upon the badly wounded vampire, ripping and tearing at him. Alucard struggled briefly before falling limp as his body was torn to pieces and scattered across the Hellsing lawn. Two guards, who happened to be the only guards left on the compound, came running over from the front gate after hearing all of the commotion. They both drew their much smaller pistols and fired at the beast. But it ignored them completely and continued to tear away at what was left of the vampire king until there was nothing but a scattered pile of shreds. His blood flowed freely into the grass as his head rolled away and down a small hill, coming to rest against the outer fence of the compound.

The creature stood and shrieked again in triumph as it turned to walk away. It walked sideways from the guards towards the front gate as they kept firing at it. And when they were out of ammo, the creature casually turned its head and shrieked again. The guards shuddered as every cell in their bodies vibrated until it burst. The creature kept walking past the pink clouds that used to be the guards as it went to leave the compound. But just as it reached the gate it heard a voice that seemed to emanate from all around...

"Release restriction level 1"

The creature quickly turned to see that the chunks that had been scattered across the lawn were moving towards each other. With another violent shriek, the creature blasted into a sprint and fell upon the pieces of the vampire as they clumped together in a pile. It tore ferociously at the chunks, trying to scatter them as fast as it could, but they were assembling too quickly. And then they became almost fluid as they turned into a black swirling void. The blood that had spilled onto the grass continued to collect into the mass until a red duster had formed. The creature shrieked at it in futility as several piercing eyes appeared.

"Is that all you can do is scream? Well then, let's just see how loud we can make you really scream!" The creature howled as dark hounds made seemingly from pitch emerged from the void in the duster coat as Alucard's head reappeared. They lunged forward and grabbed the creature's arms and legs, biting into them with a monstrous force. The creature started to bleed from its limbs as it howled in frustration. The vampire's arms and hands regenerated, restoring his antiquated Victorian garb along with them. He reached his hands forward and placed them on either side of the creatures head.

"Now….scream!" he shouted at the creature as he began to squeeze its head. The creature shrieked as loud as it could, but even as the Hellsing manor's walls began to crack, Alucard continued to squeeze while laughing manically. The shrieking grew higher and higher pitched until it silenced as the creatures head collapsed between Alucard's hands, sending a spray of black blood high into the air before falling onto the Hellsing lawn. The empowered vampire released the creature's body, allowing it to fall lifelessly on the ground. As he returned himself to his classic demeanor, he took a step back to look at the creature's remains.

"I still can't hear you." He said as he stood over the body and waited. "Well it hasn't burst into flames yet so it's not Millennium." He said before smiling. Then he threw his head back in a bout of insane laughter as he felt his spirits rising again.

"And whoever it is this time, they brought me a real demon!" Alucard laughed again as he casually strolled out the front gate of the compound. Integra would be gone for a while yet, so it was time for him to have some of his own fun.


	4. Chapter 4

Vatican City- Rome

Enrico Maxwell quietly entered his private chambers inside the Vatican. The warm red colors were welcoming to him and he looked up at a large painting of Christ staring up into the heavens through dark clouds with rays of light shooting out from behind them. There was a stack of missives sitting on his desk waiting for him on the far side of his room. He exhaled sharply as his grand bed was just a few feet from him, but he couldn't go to sleep, not yet. The past few months were hell on Earth and the church was no better off now than it was before the chaos.

Having to sit so close to Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing and the queen made his skin crawl. "How did it come to this?" he muttered to himself. As he stood over his desk, staring blankly into the pile of missives for him to look over, he remembered the burial service for Father Alexander Anderson… or at least his remains anyway... It was a short and secretive ceremony. There would be no record of him now that he was gone. The church had to remain as aloof as possible in order to keep itself out of the critical eyes of the public. His deeds were with God now he supposed. But now that Alexander was gone, the church would have to somehow train a new acolyte to defend them from the darkest of evils. Suddenly the room seemed entirely too small and Enrico felt suffocated. It was all too much. He turned away from his desk and pulled back the large ornate red curtains next to it, revealing a large pair of antique glass doors. He pulled them both open, letting in a very welcome breeze and stepped out onto the balcony. As he walked up to the far railing, he took in the bright lights of the Vatican and looked up to the sky trying to clear his mind.

"You have grown Enrico." Said a strangely familiar voice from the far side of the rather large balcony. Enrico spun to see a man dressed in robes that looked like they should be familiar to him, sitting in the corner on the far side of a small table that he had placed so that he could have breakfast outside as the sun rose up over the city in the mornings.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Enrico commanded. He was still trying to make out why the robes seemed familiar, but the only shadow on the balcony happened to be in the same spot where the man was sitting and it made getting a clear view of him difficult.

"Is it true what they say? Is my son, Alexander, truly dead?" the strange man said as he leaned forward allowing his face to be in the light. He had a look of intense worry on his face and he creased his brow. The man had ocean blue eyes and grey hair and a short beard, but his other facial features were that of a middle aged man.

Enrico jumped a little as the man's face gave him a start as a flood of memories washed through his mind. He knew this man when he himself was but a child. But aside from the grey hair and beard, this man looked as though he hadn't aged a day! "Father Lucas? Impossible!" Enrico shouted.

"I don't have time to argue with you, Enrico." The man said pleadingly. "Please just tell me, is my son gone?" he asked again as he stood and moved into the light. His robes were unmistakable now. They were grey and bared markings of the highest orders of the Iscariot; orders whose members were thought to have all died out many years ago.

"Forgive me, Father Lucas, but it is true. Alexander fell at the hands of the vampire, Alucard" Enrico said as gingerly as he could. "But how is it that you are here? You haven't aged a day!"

Father Lucas's face softened as he smiled. It was as though he had just received the best news possible. It was as if he misunderstood and had just heard that his son was still alive. "Praise be to God" he said gently. "I would not wish for my son to be alive on this world right now. At least in death, he may be safe."

"What are you talking about?" Enrico asked. The estranged priest's reaction had thrown him completely off guard. Father Lucas Anderson was the greatest fighter the church had ever had. He trained his son, Alexander, and was supposed to have trained others, but he had vanished without a trace in the early 1970's.

"Enrico, I don't have a lot of time" said Father Lucas as he sat back down in the shadows. "I know you might have questions for me, but there just simply isn't the time to answer them. I found something all those years ago before I disappeared. Something that had been buried by my order." As he spoke he removed a necklace that he had been wearing beneath his robes and slid it across the table to Enrico. It was a silver cross with a key at the end of it.

"What is this?" Enrico inquired while picking up the key.

"It's a key, Enrico."

"Yes but…"

"A key that reveals the very same box that it opens." Father Lucas interrupted. "What do you know about the rogue priest, Roderick Dayton?"

"Not much" replied Enrico. "He ran from the church because he was married to a pagan. After he was excommunicated, he died from an unknown infection. It was believed that his pox was a result of his marriage to a pagan and that God made an example of him."

"Awfully mid-evil for the 1900's don't you think? No, Enrico, that was what the church said to make sure his name was forgotten. Father Roderick was one of the brightest members of the Iscariot's holy order of science. My father was a colleague and close friend of his long ago. Roderick disappeared suddenly right around 1908 and my father went looking for him in the 40's shortly after WWII started."

"He didn't start looking for him until 32 years later?" Enrico asked, sounding very confused by this whole story. "What is the point to all of this?"

"Patience, Enrico. I never heard from my father after he left. And the church wouldn't give me any answers either. Then in February of 1971, I received a package from an unknown sender. It was from my father. And in it, were several letters that he had written and hid along with this key. You need to go down into the vaults of the Vatican and find the box that this key goes to."

"Why? I don't even understand what you're doing here now. I ought to have you tried for abandoning God and the church!" Enrico said growing frustrated. A full moon had risen now above the city and was now casting light into the shadow where Father Lucas had been sitting. Enrico could see now that tears were flowing down the man's face.

"I can't tell you why. Not here, not now. You need to find the box, Enrico. You must! Everything depends on it!" Father Lucas's voice quivered as he spoke. "And when you do, Enrico, you must take every concept of blaspheme that you know and cast it aside. The church's doctrine is full of holes and half-truths. But it had to be made that way. The truth is far more than anyone could ever want to know. We went looking for answers, Enrico. And we found them. We…..we found them…" his voice was fading now into a whisper. "Roderick….he did something… he brought something into our world, Enrico. Something terrible."

Enrico could see that the man was clearly struggling now. "Father Lucas…" he tried to say tenderly. None of this made sense. He had nothing but the highest respect for this man and was devastated at his betrayal when he left the church.

"We think we know what it means to be damned, Enrico. We thought we understood damnation. But we were wrong, Enrico. We were wrong! We know nothing of what it means to truly be damned! Evil does not exist because of a fallen angel, Enrico. It has existed all along." The shaken priest was now gritting his teeth.

"Even Satan himself is an innocent child in the face of the evils that exist. And now it is here, with us, right now in this very moment she is watching!" he said before relaxing back into his chair. He seemed very calm now.

"Father Lucas, I don't understand" said Enrico as he desperately tried to grasp the situation.

"Go with God, Enrico. And may he have mercy on your soul…on all of our souls." Father Lucas raised his arm to reveal that he had what looked like a desert eagle in his hand.

"Wait!" cried Enrico. But as he lurched forward to try to grab the weapon, Father Lucas pulled the trigger, blasting the far side of his head all over the patio wall. The fallen priest slumped in his chair as Enrico simply stood, dumbfounded. And then he heard it. It was like a loud exhale, but no one else was around. He could hear the Vatican guards now pounding his bedroom door, but before he could look away, he saw Father Lucas's body start to disintegrate. His skin seemed to melt as the rest of him started to boil. As it happened, his body began to turn into a foul black liquid as it oozed down, out of the chair, and through the metal flooring of the patio to fall on rock tiles in a garden 3 floors down. The air became terribly foul and he held his sleeve over his face. It was then that he saw a dark mist float up from the melting priest. There was no wind tonight, yet the mist moved on its own, quickly floating up into the night sky and vanishing.

Maxwell looked down at the table and saw the key still sitting there. He picked it up and walked back into his room as the guards burst their way into the room.

"I'm alright" he said. "But there are some remains on the patio. See to it that they are cleaned up and stored for burial. And treat them with respect.

"Whose remains Father? And what is that awful smell?" asked the senior guard.

"I'm afraid that's classified. Inform any one that may come looking for me that I shall return. I have an errand to attend to."


	5. Chapter 5

Enrico steeled himself as he approached the guards who were blocking the entrance to the holy vaults. They stood in silence with their ceremonial halberds and simply looked ahead as though he weren't even there. He tried to put on his best authoritative figure, but memories began flashing rapidly through his mind. His eyes widened as images of bayonet after bayonet pierced his body before everything went dark and he could hear his mentor's voice. He blinked and could see the ashes of Father Alexander being stored deep within the vault.

"Is there something I can help you with?" said the senior guard. His sudden voice shook Enrico of his haze.

"I need to go down into the vaults, stand aside." he said with his best demeanor.

"I'm sorry, sir, but access has been restricted to the Chief and his senior staff. " As the guard spoke he crossed his halberd with the other guard's ceremonial weapon.

"Damn that Makube!" he cursed through clenched teeth. He turned and stormed back down the hall from which he came, but as he approached the elevator to get back to the ground level, the doors opened and three officers that worked directly under the Chief stepped out into the hallway. Enrico stopped a few feet in front of them and clenched his fists in frustration.

"Your Eminence, Chief Makube wishes to see you." said the officer in the middle. He was barely discernable from the other two as they all wore white suits with semi-clear sun glasses.

"And just what does he want? I have other matters to attend to." Enrico said as he calmed himself before approaching the elevator again while waiving a dismissive hand.

"He didn't say, but I must insist that you come with us, your Eminence." the officer said as he reached out to grab Enrico by the arm.

"You wouldn't dare!" Enrico shouted as he struggled to pull away. But before he could break free, the other two guards surrounded him on both sides before the guard on the right tazed him. He stiffened up before finally losing consciousness as the officers drug him into the elevator. The guards at the far end of the hall didn't even flinch as they continued to look straight ahead as the elevator doors closed.

….

Chief Makube sat behind his desk in his official chambers staring at the mound of paperwork that his predecessor had left. Only now, it had been mixed in with new missives and new orders from the Pope and new reports and…

"This is madness." he muttered under his breath. "No wonder London was such a disaster." He was quite young to be Chief, but he was the next in line to Enrico. His face was somber as he lightly touched a finger to a scar that ran down the left side of his face over his eye as he pondered where he wanted to start next before the night was over.

He looked over the room and took in the décor with its electric candelabras and bookcase after bookcase that lined the walls. There were hundreds upon hundreds of secrets that were stored in files that occupied the shelves in between old religious texts. A part of him wished that he could go back to his own job, but being given this position was quite an honor and he didn't want to fall out of the Pope's good graces. He took a deep breath and reached for the large stack on his desk before being interrupted.

The doors to his chambers opened as three white suited officers drug in an unconscious Enrico Maxwell. They sat him gingerly in a chair across from the Chief's desk before taking a step back to stand guard behind him.

"You were supposed to keep a low profile after his holiness ordained you as Bishop, your Eminence. I still haven't heard from you about your progress in London working with the Hellsing organization." said Makube before waiving a hand to dismiss the officers. Enrico simply groaned as he regained consciousness.

"What happened on your balcony? What is the foul black substance that you ordered your guards to recover before you tried to access the holy vaults without permission?" he asked as he began reading one of the reports out of the gigantic stack.

"You dare to have your officers lay a hand on me, Priest?" Enrico was doing his best to shout but his voice and neck were stiff. He rubbed the side of his neck as he felt a small welt where the tazer had apparently hit him.

"Your being ordained as Bishop was merely a formality to keep you under our close watch after what happened in London. We still don't know what Father Alexander did or why you're even alive, so his holiness felt that you had become a liability. And now that I am Chief of the Iscariot, Bishop Maxwell, it is my prerogative to act as I see fit when a threat is presented to the church. You know that prerogative very well I see as is evident by this mound of shit that you left me." he said as he pointed to the large pile on his desk.

Enrico couldn't respond. As soon as Father Alexander's name was mentioned, the flashes started again as they were now mixing with the image of Father Lucas melting away in pitch through his balcony floor.

"Bishop Maxwell?" said Chief Makube as he lowered the report he was reading.

"It was Father Lucas Alexander." Enrico finally spoke as his eyes locked on to Makube's after shaking off the haze again.

"And why would a rogue priest show up after all these years to turn into a pile of ooze on your balcony?" the Chief said as he went back to reading his report.

"Probably for the same reason I was sent to London, even though I'm, as you say, 'keeping a low profile.'" said Enrico sarcastically.

"Well, your Eminence, this large stack of paper here has demanded all of my time and I figured your rapport with Hellsing made you the perfect man for the job." said the Chief with a smile. "After all, everyone who saw you die is already dead, so your face shouldn't have been a surprise there."

"Indeed." said Enrico as he was thinking of his next move.

"So, should we continue with this pointless exchange, or should I assume that your resurrection is what resulted in the substance that is on your balcony and take the steps necessary to ensure that, as you might be tainted, you will not be a threat to us?" Makube lowered the report he had been reading before signing it and placing it on a much smaller pile on the other side of his desk before looking up to lock eyes with Maxwell.

Enrico gritted his teeth. "_Insolent whelp!" _he thought to himself before regaining his composure. "I believe he is who he said he was, Makube, and before he put a gun to his head, he gave me this key." he said as he pulled out the silvery key before tossing it on the Chief's desk.

"What's it for?" Makube asked as he picked up the key to examine it.

"I'm not sure, Chief, I was about to find that out before your miscreants put a tazer to my neck." Enrico's sarcasm was glaring as he glared into the Chief as he continued examining the key.

"Tread lightly, your Eminence. We haven't forgotten the massacre in London. Your self-centered foolishness cost the lives of many and even his holiness questions whether or not you were really doing God's work." Makube tossed the key back to Enrico.

"Unlike the spineless fools who would have had me retreat, I stood my ground for God, Makube! I won't stand here and be questioned by the likes of you!" Enrico's chair tipped backwards as he stood up curse at the Chief as he himself continued to sit calmly.

"If I were you, Maxwell, I would have had you eliminated already as a threat to the church and been done with this. But as I am not you, I want you to go down into the vaults and see what Father Lucas wanted from you. If he really was here as you say, then he came to you for a reason. Even I heard stories of his work before he left the church. I never made a judgment on his intentions." Enrico had to stop his mouth from falling agape in shock as Chief Makube remained calm and collected. "I have a great deal of work to do here and as it seems as it was you who was given this task already, I expect you to carry it out. Just know, Bishop Maxwell, that you are going to be watched…..closely."

Enrico's anger desperately wanted to spill over across the Chief's desk, but the look in Father Lucas's eyes flashed in his mind. This might be his only chance to get a glimpse at what was going on and he knew it. It took everything he had, but he managed to simply nod and leave the room.


	6. Chapter 6

East Los Angeles- USA

Walter stared blankly into a glass of cheap scotch as a TV mumbled on about the current economic problems in America over the murmurs of several patrons that were scattered throughout the bar. He wanted to wonder how he had come to this place, but he knew quite plainly why he was here. He couldn't bare the shame of what had happened in England. Why...Why didn't Alucard leave him to die!? His hearing had been remarkably enhanced as the murmurs from everyone in the bar were quite clear to him.

"_Hey check out that old guy over there."_

"_Yeah? What about him?"_

"_Man, he looks like he walked straight out of Wayne Manor, yo."_

"_What?"_

"_He looks like Batman's butler, dumbass."_

"_Oh! Yeah he does!"_

"Hey Alfred! We could use another round of drinks over here!"

Walter didn't even look to see who was yelling at him. He knew it was two Spanish looking gentlemen that had just came in and were sitting in a booth at the far end of the bar. They weren't gentlemen of course, they were punk kids. But as much as they jeered at him, he couldn't help but relish the insult to his character. He deserved every wrong that came his way. He couldn't even remain in England to face Sir Integra or even Alucard. He played with the rim of his glass with one finger as he observed the wrinkles and veins his hands.

"What was it you saw that was so beautiful about this form?" he asked quietly to himself.

"Yo, Alfred! Batman called, he wants his bitch back!" yelled one of the men from before.

Walter still didn't flinch as he continued to stare into his drink before downing it and requesting another. The alcohol felt like poison to him, and he couldn't even enjoy the comfort of being intoxicated. But it was all as well… he didn't deserve comfort. And he knew it. A part of him was even secretly wishing that the two gentlemen at the other end of the bar would come over and kill him so that he no longer had to feel wave after wave of shame mixed in with guilt. It was strange…. As much as he feared death, it was now seeming like it would become a sweet release from the agony of living in disgrace.

He couldn't help but wonder what his next move should be. He had already ran about as far as he could run from Hellsing. He would never be able to face his former employers and friends. It suddenly dawned on him that he now had eternity to spend in this place. He slowly swirled the remaining scotch he had in his glass and watched the amber fluid go round and around. Maybe he _was_ dead. Maybe Alucard didn't actually bring him back and he was in fact already in hell. It made sense. The only possibly worse place on Earth that he could have gone may be Mexico, but at least there was culture there. But here there was nothing but hopelessness and lunacy. He wanted to continue to ponder the exciting possibility of an eternity in hell, but his thoughts were interrupted as he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, ese`, I was talking to you. You got a problem holms? I don't like being ignored grandpa." said one of the men from before. Walter didn't even have to look to know what he looked like. He was Spanish, or, as he supposed now in this country, Mexican, and was wearing a white bandana around his head. He had low hanging pants on and an oversized T-shirt. His arms were riddled with tribal tattoos and his friend wore a similar attire with a shirt that had a picture of Jesus crowned in thorns on it and was standing slightly behind him.

He continued to sip on his drink while ignoring the young man. "Hey, I'm talking to you bitch! You got a hearing problem you old fuck?" said the man sounding very clearly annoyed. But Walter continued to sip his drink as if they weren't even there.

The other patrons didn't really flinch either as they looked on to see what the old man would do. Walter knew that he could cut both of these men into several small pieces in a matter of seconds if he wanted. But there was an insurmountable part of him that secretly wished that one of these men possessed the skill necessary to simply kill him while he tried to enjoy a drink that no longer carried any taste for him. But the moment he realized that his drink was like nothing more than poison to him, his ears suddenly dialed in to the beating hearts of the two men behind him.

"You disrespectful wrinkly mother fucker!" yelled the young man as he pushed Walter, causing him to fall off of his bar stool an on to the floor. "Can you hear me now bitch?" said the man as he pulled out a switch blade while his partner put his hand on a gun that was barely secured by his sagging waistline.

Walter looked up at the two men standing over him as the entire bar fell silent to watch on. He could see their hearts beating in their jugulars and he could feel an intense hunger from within. He had been starving himself up to this point in order to further punish himself. But despite the poor quality of the human beings standing before him, their blood smelled sweeter than a fine English tea.

"So what's it goanna be you 'Mr. Rodgers' lookin ass pussy?" said the man as Walter continued to fixate himself on his pulse as his barely intelligible gibberish mixed with threats continued.

The man finally worked himself up into such a frenzy that he lunged forward at Walter with his knife. But as he did so, Walter noticed whispering that was suddenly coming from all around him. The whole world fell silent as the whispering drowned out even the sounds of the two men's heartbeats. As he watched on, the man was now seemingly hanging in air as though time itself had suddenly slowed down. And then he saw it…

She had walked into the bar just seconds before he had been pushed off of his stool. Her hair was bright red and flowed over her shoulders to touch a silky dark blue dress gown that hugged her sultry figure. Her eyes were glowing red like fire as her gaze met his. She smiled as she brought her finger teasingly up to her lip before biting it as the man who had been watching his friend fall upon Walter with a knife pulled out his gun.

It was strange, Walter could perceive time normally, and the woman at the entrance of the bar seemed to be moving normally as she caressed her curves, running her hands up and down her perfect body before running a hand between her legs to rub herself through her gown. Walter was awestruck watching the woman now and didn't even notice that the man with the gun had pointed it at his friends head. And then he heard it, a mind shattering explosion as the man with the gun pulled the trigger. Time was almost standing still now as Walter looked up to see a hollow point bullet casually leave the barrel of the gun before taking its time to travel the two feet of air in front of it before slowly boring its way into the skull of the man with a knife.

Walter got quite the start as he felt his heart suddenly beat a single time as though he were still fully alive for just a moment as he heard the woman at the end of the bar moaning in pleasure as she lifted up her gown to finger herself right there in front of everyone. The man with the knife's head moved slightly and his eyes widened as the bullet traveled painfully slow through his skull, liquefying his brain as the hollow point folded both inwards and then outwards, grabbing both blood and tissue and then carrying it out the other side of the man's head as an almost perfect circle formed on the far side of it before separating and floating across open air. The woman at the end of the bar screamed in ecstasy at the sight of it as his blood and brain matter seemingly hung in the air.

Walter's heart beat again, but this time it filled him with a little bit of excitement mixed with arousal at the sight of the shapely red-headed lust that was before him as well as elation at the sight of this man's blood….food… hanging in the air before him as though it were waiting for him. But as the moment dragged on the whispering continued and he realized that every hair on the back of his neck was now standing straight up. He didn't understand why, but he was terrified. Whatever this was, it felt worse than death.

The carnage from the one man's exploding head was beginning to slowly rain down as Walter felt his heart beat yet again. But this time it felt like lightening had struck him. And as it happened, time seemed to speed up again to get back to normal as he felt it again... and again… and again… It was torture. Each time his heartbeat, it was a violent electric shock that, as it progressed, felt as though a burning hot knife were piercing through his chest. Time had almost gone back to normal as the injured man fell to the ground as his friend turned his gun around before sticking it in his mouth.

The woman at the end of the bar was still going at herself furiously as she trembled and mewed. Walter was truly frightened at what was happening. But, even though the situation was mortifying and he was all but paralyzed by terror, he still was chagrined by the fact that he was supposed to be a rather formal and dignified person, yet here he was, laying on the ground, at a very old age, with blood pouring down on him, and he had an erection. It was quite undignified and downright embarrassing. Another explosion rang out as the woman at the end of the bar threw her head back and screamed in a deafening cry of passion as Walter felt the first half of a heart beat again while the other man's neck and part of his skull sprayed outwards against a far wall. As he felt it, time froze all together and it again felt like being hit by lightning. The pain was so intense that the whole room flashed white before the second half of the heart beat as his head fell backwards unconscious to hit the bar floor as the rest of his body became limp.


End file.
